Sharp Aquos Crystal: Hands-on with the no-bezel smartphone (pictures)

Sharp's latest phone is landing in the US and bringing with it a unique design. The phone has a wide display that stretches across the front of the phone.

The phone launches on Sprint, Virgin Mobile, and Boost Mobile in the US, and SoftBank in Japan.

The Aquos Crystal is running Android KitKat 4.4.2, a modern version of the operating system.

With KitKat, you'll find the typical Google apps, plus a few custom software features. You can swipe across the top of the phone to grab a screenshot.

The wide bottom edge of the phone houses the front-facing camera and ambient light sensor.

You get two color choices with the Spring version; black and white.

The Softback version comes in blue and pink as well.

Inside, the phone packs a  a 1.2GHz quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 1.5GB of on-board RAM, and 8GB of storage.

The bottom of the phone houses the Micro-USB charging port and microphone.

There's a volume rocker on the left side.

The top of the Aquos Crystal houses the power/lock button and headphone jack.

On the back, there's a speaker for calls and music, plus an 8-megapixel camera.

Despite its super-thin screen bezel, the phone's overall design is a bit chunky. It's definitely not the thinest phone on the market.

The Aquos Crystal's "frameless display" doesn't have much of a bezel, that black space you see around most smartphone screens. Instead, the screen appears to fill the entire front panel.

Sharp's Aquos Crystal launches on August 29 in Japan. It'll come to the US after that on Sprint, and cost $240. You can get it for just $20 with a new two-year contract. On Boost and Virgin Mobile, it'll cost $150.